The Healthcare Heroes Awards have been created to honor the memory of Richard Egosi, the former Teva Chief Legal Officer who died of cancer in 2016 and whose ethics and beliefs find their perfect embodiment in the successful company he loved and helped to build.

The awards will honor Richard in a manner that reflects and pays tribute to his life, leadership and legacy at Teva Pharmaceuticals, and in the community.

The awards will be a reflection of Teva’s commitment to being a good citizen on a global scale, as Peggy Sweeney of the National Liberty Museum explains. “The museum knows Teva very well,” she says, “and we really admire Teva as a corporate citizen in terms of its commitment to strengthening our community through charitable programs.

“We had long wanted to institute an awards program to celebrate pioneering healthcare practitioners and researchers, and Teva thought the idea was wonderful. We really think there is the chance here to do something special, launching Healthcare Heroes and dedicating it to the life of Richard Egosi.”

The nominations window opened online soon after the launch event, and remains open. Joel Sumner, the National Liberty Museum’s Awards Program Coordinator, has not yet set a deadline for submissions. “We are currently accepting nominations from around the world and continuing to bring those nominations in,” he says. “We are looking to establish a mutually beneficial deadline with Teva for the nominations window and make sure that we get the candidates who really emphasize the importance of this award. Some of the nominees we have so far have done incredible things in their field.”

Peggy Sweeney agrees: “This is truly a global program,” she says. “The four categories reflect meaningful aspects of Richard’s life, as well as the community citizen that he was.”

Following the awards, the museum will devote an exhibition to Teva’s Healthcare Heroes. “We have three existing annual awards programs for heroes at the museum already that are each more than a decade old,” Sweeney says.

“We have a young heroes’ award, an inspirational teachers’ award and an award that celebrates first responders – police, firemen and medics who are the embodiment of courage. Our aim is to make Healthcare Heroes a sustained initiative that would be rooted like our other awards in their impact on the community.” The Healthcare Heroes exhibition will open immediately after the awards ceremony and will display photographs and biographies of nominees, alongside explanations of their work and why they were nominated.

“We feel very privileged because in our museum we share the stories of inspirational people,” Sweeney says. “The hope is to have young people, the leaders of tomorrow, hear these stories, take them in and feel like they have the power to make a difference.”

The awards will pay tribute to inspirational people working in healthcare research and treatment whose accomplishments are of lasting benefit to their patients, their field, and the wider world. By publicly recognizing and promoting the inspiring achievements of innovative pioneers, the Teva Healthcare Heroes Awards will become a globally recognized imprimatur of excellence in healthcare, medicine and pharmacology. As the awards grow in prestige and visibility, their aim will be to encourage an entrepreneurial, creative spirit among researchers and scientists.

The awards were inaugurated at an event held at the National Liberty Museum in June 2017 and attended by many of Richard’s friends, family and colleagues. Following this launch, nominations were opened online with a view to identifying and recognizing the pre-eminent healthcare heroes of our time in four categories.

These are: Hero researcher or practitioner in the field of cancer. The hero’s pioneering work has moved forward cancer research and patient health and treatment.

Hero researcher or practitioner in the field of Crohn’s Disease. The hero’s pioneering work has advanced Crohn’s disease research and patient health and treatment.

Community Hero Award. A hero whose efforts, particularly in underserved communities, have had a profound impact on the health and well-being of others.

Healthcare Hero of Israel. A hero of Israel whose life’s work has resulted in breakthroughs in healthcare research, technology, and treatment.

If Teva can inspire a new generation of researchers, medics and doctors to continue to push forward the frontiers of science, then these awards will be a fitting tribute to the much-missed Richard Egosi.